It looks as though incoming Everton boss Frank Lampard has turned to Paul Clement to be his new assistant manager at Goodison Park.
Lampard had been hoping to persude the Chelsea assistant Anthony Barry who he brought to Stamford Bridge to swap West London for Merseyside, but it seems Barry, although a former Everton trainee, prefers to stay with the European Champions.
To be honest that’s not too surprising and I guess this was always a long shot that he would re-join Lampard straight away.
So, the Blues’ new prospective manager has moved to bring Clement in to be his number two as the new backroom staff takes shape.
His arrival might throw further doubt about whether Duncan Ferguson will stay at Goodison Park of if the Scot will finally leave.
Clement is a very experienced coach with an impressive CV who had a spell at Chelsea as well as in Spain with Real Madrid and has been at a succession of other clubs too.
One of those is Derby and it seems everyone connected with the Everton manager’s post these days has to have spent some time at Pride Park! Most recently he has been working in Belgium.
Clement has further connections with Everton as he has worked numerous times under Carlo Ancelotti whose unexpected and sudden departure last summer led to Rafa Benitez’s appointment and ultimately to the current crisis.
The focus over the past few years of upheaval and change has always and inevitably been on who is the club manager is and less attention is generally paid on who his assistants are.
But, the influence of these coaches is often almost, or as important, as the maanger himself. For example, Davide Ancelotti was widely credited with shoring up the Toffees set-piece defence, which has since become a major problem again this season.
Hopefully, a coach of Clement’s quality and experience will help resolve issues like this and tighten up for example the defending generally.
We’re still waiting for the fnal confirmation of Lampard’s succession to the job, but as the hours tick by it seems with Donny van de Beek’s arrival and the news about Clement, that it is taking shape with a formal announcement presumably tomorrow now.